> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.whop.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Business health and dispute monitoring > Understand why controls are placed on high-dispute accounts, and learn exactly how to lower your dispute rate. Your **Business health** dashboard shows how healthy your payments account is, what (if anything) is currently limiting your account, and what to do about it. You'll find it on your **[dashboard](https://whop.com/dashboard/payment-health/)**, and if any controls are active, we'll also email you. This guide explains the whole picture: what a dispute rate is, why Whop places controls on accounts with high dispute rates, how to read every number on the dashboard, and (most importantly) the concrete steps that actually bring your dispute rate down. ## What a dispute rate is A **dispute** (also called a chargeback) happens when a customer asks their bank to reverse a payment instead of coming to you for a refund. Your **dispute rate** is the share of your sales that end in a dispute: **Dispute rate = disputes ÷ transactions**. A few disputes are normal for any business. The problem is the *rate*. Card networks hold every merchant to a maximum dispute rate, and the line they care about is **1.5%**. Stay under it and you're in good standing. Climb over it and there are consequences, both for you and for Whop. ## Why Whop places controls on high-dispute accounts When your dispute rate climbs too high, we put a set of tools in place to do everything we can, alongside you, to bring your rate back down. Every one of those tools is designed so you can **keep taking payments the whole time**. We do this because a high dispute rate isn't only your problem. Card networks hold Whop responsible for the dispute rates of everyone who processes payments on the platform. Left unchecked, a high rate may lead to card payments being shut off for your business, with no warning and no way back. Stepping in early is how we prevent that. Controls also protect two things you care about: * **Your money.** A high dispute rate means more chargebacks are coming. Reserves and pending-balance holds make sure there's enough in your account to cover them, so you don't end up with a [negative balance](/trust-and-safety/account-health/managing-dispute-rates#negative-balances). * **Your checkout options.** Financing partners (Klarna, Afterpay, Splitit, and others) won't work with merchants whose dispute rates run high. Keeping your rate low protects your access to [buy-now-pay-later](/payments-and-billing/financing/apply) at checkout. Controls scale with your dispute rate and lift on their own once you recover. ## Reading your Business health dashboard ### Your standing At the top of the page is your **dispute rate** and a colored badge showing your standing: | Standing | Dispute rate (last 30 days) | What it means | | ------------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Healthy** | Under 0.75% | Well under the threshold. No controls apply. | | **At risk** | 0.75% – 1.5% | A warning band. No controls yet, but you're getting close — now is the time to act. | | **Enrolled · low** | 1.5% – 2.5% | Over the threshold. A first set of controls is active. | | **Enrolled · high** | Above 2.5% | Well over the threshold. All controls are active, and card payments are at risk if it doesn't improve. | We don't only look at your trailing 30-day rate — we also measure your **cohorted** dispute rate ([explained just below](#cohorted-vs-trailing-dispute-rate)), which can place you in a tier earlier. You're enrolled the moment **any** of the thresholds below is crossed, whichever trips first: | Tier | Trailing rate (last 30 days) | 28-day cohort | 14-day cohort | | ------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------- | ------------- | | **Enrolled · low** | 1.5% | 1.0% | 0.75% | | **Enrolled · high** | 2.5% | 2.0% | 1.0% | Controls lift automatically once your rates are back under the enrollment thresholds for **4 consecutive weeks**. The dashboard shows your progress toward that (for example, "2 of 4 clean weeks"). ### Cohorted vs. trailing dispute rate You'll see your dispute rate two ways. They answer different questions, and which one to trust depends on your situation. * **Trailing (or "regular") rate** — all the disputes that came in the last 30 days, divided by sales in the last 30 days. * **Cohorted rate** — takes a batch of sales from one point in time and follows *that same batch* to see how many get disputed. You'll see **D7**, **D14**, and **D28** rates: the share of a batch of sales disputed within 7, 14, and 28 days of purchase. **When to look at each one** Disputes don't show up the day of the sale — they trickle in over the weeks that follow. That lag is why the two numbers can disagree: * **If your sales are steady**, the two rates look about the same. Either one is fine to watch. * **If you're growing fast**, your trailing rate looks deceptively *low*. You've got a flood of brand-new sales in the mix whose disputes simply haven't arrived yet, which hides your real rate. In that case, watch your **cohorted** rate — it follows one batch of sales all the way through, so it shows what your recent sales are actually on track to cost you. It's usually the early warning that your trailing rate is about to climb. **Why the cohorted chart doesn't run all the way to today.** A sale needs time for its disputes to arrive. The most recent weeks haven't had that time yet, so their number isn't final. ### Your refund rate Your dashboard also shows your **refund rate** — the refunds you issued as a share of sales. Read it right next to your dispute rate: if your refund rate is **low while your dispute rate is high**, that's a red flag. It means customers who wanted their money back are going to their bank instead of coming to you. ### Why customers dispute (dispute-reason breakdown) The dashboard breaks your disputes down by reason. This is the single most useful part of the page, because each reason points directly at a fix: | Dispute reason | What the customer is really saying | The fix | | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Fraudulent / unrecognized** | "I didn't authorize this" or "I don't recognize this charge" | Clarify your billing descriptor, disclose rebills clearly, and remove aggressive or forced upsells (see [Set clear expectations](#set-clear-expectations-before-payment)) | | **Product not as described** | "This wasn't what I was promised" | Make your storefront and product descriptions match reality; don't over-promise in ads | | **Product not received** | "My order never arrived" | Add tracking to every order and set honest delivery estimates at checkout | | **Subscription canceled** | "I canceled but was still charged" or "I forgot I subscribed" | Make canceling easy, disclose the rebill amount and date up front, and honor cancellations quickly | | **Credit not processed** | "I was promised a refund and never got it" | Respond to refund requests quickly and actually issue the refund when it's owed | If one reason dominates your chart, start there. Fixing the largest slice moves your rate the most. ## The controls, and why each one helps When you're enrolled, some combination of the controls below turns on. Your dashboard always shows exactly which are active on **your** account. As your dispute rate rises, more controls apply and existing ones tighten; as it falls, they ease off and eventually lift entirely. Because we watch your **cohorted** rate too, controls can turn on early — while your 30-day rate still looks fine but your recent sales are already being disputed at a higher rate. That head start is deliberate: it's far easier to bend the curve before those disputes fully land. Either way, every control is doing one of two jobs: **stopping disputes before they land**, or **protecting the funds needed to cover the ones already on their way.** | Control | What changes | Why it helps you | | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Higher auto-refund threshold** | We automatically refund more of your incoming pre-chargeback alerts before they turn into disputes | An alert is a dispute in progress. Refunding it in time means it never counts against your rate. This is the single most effective way to bring your rate down *without* stopping sales. | | **Resolution Center auto-refund** | More open Resolution Center cases are refunded automatically | Catches unhappy customers who would otherwise go straight to their bank, and resolves them instantly so they never escalate into a dispute. | | **Higher dispute alert fee** | The fee to intercept each pre-chargeback alert increases | This is temporary — the fee goes back to normal as soon as your account is out of the program. | | **High-risk processing fee** | An additional fee may be applied to each transaction while enrolled | It covers the extra risk your account carries right now, and it's removed the moment your account is healthy again. | | **Longer pending balance period** | Your funds may stay pending for longer before they're available to withdraw | Keeps enough money in your account to cover the disputes still on their way, protecting you from a [negative balance](/trust-and-safety/account-health/managing-dispute-rates#negative-balances) you'd otherwise have to repay out of pocket. | | **Financing disabled** | Buy-now-pay-later options are turned off at checkout | Financing purchases are disputed far more often than standard card payments, so pausing them removes a major, concentrated source of disputes. | | **3DS enforced** | Customers confirm the purchase directly with their bank at checkout | This blocks most fraudulent charges before they happen — and the chargebacks that come with them. It turns on when a large share of your disputes are marked *fraudulent*. | If your dispute rate reaches excessive levels, accepting payments will be disabled on your account entirely. Every other control exists to prevent this — which is why acting early matters so much. ## How to lower your dispute rate ### Refund more, and refund faster This is the fastest lever you have. **A refund costs you one sale. A dispute costs you the sale, a dispute fee, and a hit to your rate.** When a customer wants their money back, it is almost always cheaper to give it to them than to let it become a chargeback. * **Respond to your open disputes and alerts now.** Each pre-chargeback [alert](/manage-your-business/manage-payments/manage-disputes#set-up-early-dispute-alerts) you resolve is a dispute that never lands on your rate. Set an **auto-refund threshold** so small alerts and cases are refunded automatically. * **Issue refunds when they're deserved.** A high dispute rate with a low refund rate means customers are choosing their bank over you — usually because refunding felt slow or impossible. See [how to issue refunds](/manage-your-business/manage-payments/issuing-refunds). * **Keep enough balance on hand** to cover refunds instantly, so you never have to delay one. ### Make it easy to reach you — push customers to the Resolution Center Most disputes happen because the customer didn't know they could just ask *you*. The [**Resolution Center**](/manage-your-business/manage-payments/resolution-center) lets customers open a case and get a refund or a reply directly from you — instead of calling their bank. Every case you resolve there is a dispute that never happens. Learn how the Resolution Center works, how to respond to cases, and how to set up automatic refunds for small claims. To route more customers there before they dispute: * Point unhappy customers to the Resolution Center in your product, your community, and your support replies. * **Respond to cases fast** — you have 7 days before Whop steps in, but responding quickly is what keeps customers from escalating to their bank. * Set up [auto-responses](/manage-your-business/manage-payments/resolution-center#set-up-auto-respond-for-small-refunds) so small refund requests are handled instantly. ### Be proactive with your customers Don't wait for a complaint to become a chargeback. * Reach out when something goes wrong — a delayed delivery, an outage, a change to your offer — before the customer does. * Answer messages and refund requests quickly. Silence is the number-one reason a "credit not processed" dispute gets filed. * Treat every dispute reason on your dashboard as a to-do list, not a report card. ### Set clear expectations before payment A large share of "fraudulent" and "not as described" disputes come from customers who felt surprised by the charge. Remove the surprise: * **If it's a recurring membership, make that unmistakable.** State the rebill amount, the billing interval, and the renewal date *before* checkout, and make it obvious how to cancel. Customers who forget they subscribed dispute the rebill. * **Make it clear what they're getting before they pay.** Your storefront, product description, and checkout should match exactly what the customer receives. Don't let your ads promise more than your product delivers. * **Never force a purchase.** Aggressive or pre-checked upsells, add-ons the customer didn't intend to buy, and confusing "free trial → charge" flows all generate disputes where the customer genuinely feels they never agreed. Keep every charge deliberate and opt-in. * **Use a clear billing descriptor.** If customers don't recognize the name on their bank statement, they file a "fraudulent / unrecognized" dispute. Set a billing descriptor that reflects your brand — you can customize it in your dashboard settings. ### Ship reliably (for physical goods) If you sell anything that ships, "product not received" is often your biggest dispute reason: * Add **tracking** to every order. * Set **honest delivery estimates** at checkout, under-promise and over-deliver. * Proactively update customers on delays. ### Keep strong policies on file Clear policies both prevent disputes and help you win the ones you do get: * Publish clear **Terms of Service**, **refund**, and **cancellation** policies, and [upload them as legal documents](/manage-your-business/manage-business/legal-documents) so Whop can include them automatically when you fight a dispute. * Make your policies visible before checkout, not buried after it. ## What happens if your rate doesn't improve If your dispute rate stays high despite the controls, the consequences escalate: * A [**reserve**](/trust-and-safety/account-health/reserves) may be placed on your balance so there's enough to cover incoming chargebacks. * Card payments can be **disabled** on your account. * In severe cases, the account may be [**suspended**](/trust-and-safety/suspensions/account-suspensions). All of these reverse as your dispute rate recovers. The single best thing you can do is act early, before the controls kick in. ## FAQs Your standing looks at your dispute rate over a sustained window, not just the last week or two — and recent weeks almost always look better than they'll end up, because the disputes from those sales haven't arrived yet. If you're growing fast, check your **cohorted** rate: it follows one batch of sales all the way through and shows what your recent sales are really on track to cost you. Get your dispute rate back under the enrollment thresholds and keep it there for 4 consecutive weeks. Controls then lift automatically — you don't need to contact support. Your dashboard shows your progress. No. Refunds are the opposite of disputes — issuing a refund removes a potential dispute. A refund costs you one sale; a dispute costs you the sale, a dispute fee, and a hit to your rate. Pausing sales doesn't help right away. Because disputes lag behind sales, your rate can actually *rise* for a couple of weeks after you stop selling — you've stopped adding new sales, but the disputes from older ones are still coming in. The reliable fixes are the ones above: refund your alerts in time, resolve cases, and remove what's causing new disputes. Accounts with high dispute rates carry more chargeback risk to process. The fee offsets that risk while you're enrolled and is removed once you're back in good standing. ## Related A quick checklist for keeping your dispute rate low. Respond to and win disputes with the Dispute fighter. Resolve refund requests before they become disputes. When and why Whop holds a portion of your balance.